I’ve been very controversial around Pune due to my lack of respect (but I call it admiration) for “Industry Experts”. Well, this is not to say that I don’t respect and possibly admire them as human beings, but I really don’t see what the industry has got to do with anything.
The one scene that comes to mind immediately is the one on Degobah where Luke tells Yoda, “I’m looking for a great warrior.”, and Yoda replies, “Great Warrior……. Wars not make one great.”
And the one country that claims moral superiority over USA and the western world for their materialistic nature (which I never saw when I was in the US), is the one country that disrespects personal values and attaches so much importance to dog tags and certifications. If ever you wanted the definition of Hypocricy, this is it!
Ever since I entered college, I’ve been hearing, “Listen to that fellow, he is an industry expert.”
I would rather have listened to a person if he were knowledgable, or intelligent, or wise instead of because he’s an industry expert. I believe that it somehow diminishes the value of the people who’re really experts on their own merit and gives too much credit to those in the industry who’re not really experts by even a long shot. And this vague phrase to describe them does not help anyone differentiate between the two.
I was told that my assumptions of how the industry works or should work were wrong and was told that I would never get a job (and I possibly still would not pass through 90% of the interviews conducted on the campus activity at college). But I found a company that works just the way I had imagined the industry to work. And I’m loving it.
I am now one of these “industry experts”. I personally feel insulted when someone calls me this – as if the industry has anything to do with my expertise. I was the same person for 4 years. I’ve known the same things and held the same opinions. All of a sudden, my opinions are considered seriously because I’m an industry expert. And more so, in the one country that claims not to be money-minded like the “Americans” (not sure why we generalise to all Americans by looking at Hollywood movies – wonder how we would feel if all Indian girls were to be generalised based on Mallika Sherawat movies).
It’s insulting because it fails to value me as a person. I’m a very selfish person. I want publicity and I love it. However, I want it for me! I am what I am due to my abilities – be they good or bad. If I were to be bad and in the industry, would all “industry experts” blame the industry for me being bad? If not, then why do they give credit to the industry for my expertise?
I still don’t understand how people love this phrase. I would think that every “industry expert” who goes to colleges might discourage the use of this phrase because it diminishes his abilities. It claims that he is what he is due to the industry. It means that without his industry dog-tag, he has absolutely no expertise. I personally do claim so. If there are any other computer science experts out there who think they’ve achieved expertise due to hard work and dedication, I would like you to discourage this phrase. You could say that you’re a CS expert who _works_ in the industry. But “industry => expert” is a wrong predicate to be taught amongst students.
Does this mean that the industry is always right? Then how come so many agencies report that most IT projects are behind schedule, over their original cost, and below specifications. Doesn’t really seem like the industry understands expertise does it? If it’s still learning, then how do we know that what an industry expert does _is_the_right_thing_? As a scientist I pose this question. Forget an analytical answer, give me an empirical one – I’ll accept it.
I’ve been harassed and tortured for three years by these experts and told how they know best. And whatever they do in their company is posed as if the entire world does it. Today, I was talking to my classmate about MS and their standards, and he immediately assumed a defensive stance claiming that MS is not the whole industry and I shouldn’t tell first years to be more liberal-minded just because MS is. He tells me that other companies may not have that atmosphere. However, he was not ready to answer immediately why he assumes that what he sees in his company is done everywhere in the world? This arrogance is frustrating, irritating and totally damaging towards the younger generation.
The second problem is that alumni too often assume that they’re, for some obvious reason that escaped me all this time, asymtotically superior to all juniors. When I talk of students studying hard and trying for IBM or MSFT, they tell me that for many years nobody from FC got into MSFT (which is wrong, I met at least two Fergussonians there), and since they didn’t get through, how would I expect the juniors to get through. This is a totally Sith concept! And the Sith must be eradicated from society. I expect my juniors to think of joining the NSA, NASA, DRDO, work on India’s moon missions, etc. And assuming that they would perform only less than or equal to me would be a very damaging assumption (for them).
This assumption gets translated into lectures and talks telling students how a company like MSFT will never hire them since they’re not in an IIT. To hell with them! I’ve personally talked with my manager at MSFT and I assure you this is not so. If you’re good, MSFT will hire you. MSFT seriously believes in the principle, “Great IITian….. Hmm…. IIT’s not make one great.”
So this is a message to industry experts, please let us remove this myth and call ourselves computer science experts. Even if I work in a Cyber Cafe, I will still remain this very expert. I shall still have the same knowledge and wisdom (or the lack of it). And I shall lack what I lack even if I work at MSFT. The point is, give me respect for being me – not due to the dog-tag I wear around my neck. A dog with a rich owner is no “better” than a dog with a poor owner. A dog is ultimately a dog. Respect me for being a dog and for what tricks I can do, not for who my owner is.
And it’s also a message to juniors. Don’t believe in all this crap. There are no rules in the industry and there are no barriers. You’re as good as anyone else. You’ve got to stop believing you’re bad just because someone tells you so. I don’t think Einstein, being a great physicist, was ever able to or even claimed to be a judge of the physics ability in general of other people. I don’t think Euclid went around judging people’s mathematics ability. And we know for a fact that all judgements of intellectuals about Edison’s abilities were totally wrong. The “materialistic” west learnt to value human beings instead of their tags. Our great philosophical society, for some reason, fails to understand this. Judgemental attitude is bad, and only a Sith deals in absolutes. If someone tells you you’re bad and there’s nothing you can do about it, then destroy the Sith you must!
The IT industry is an amazing thing in more than one way. And that’s why it has an equal number of frustrations as there are rewards. In no known history was an industry so liberal as the IT industry. For example, suppose I wanted to become a jeweler. Where would I start? I have no idea. Where do you go and buy gold for the ornaments? Do you want into a gold shop and buy a few grams of it? How is it packaged? How is it delivered? Can I compete against jewelery shops in my neighbourhood who’ve been doing this for generations? The same applies to farming. I don’t believe even if I wanted, that I could buy a whole lot of land and begin farming. So all industries have a tradition. While this is the reality, it’s not a very good reality.
But IT changed all that. IT does not discriminate. IT has no inheritance (no pun intended). That’s what frustrates many and simultaneously elates many more. In IT, you can be from a big city or a rural village. It makes no difference at all. You’re abilities are what matter. That’s _all_ that matters. No longer can you attend expensive coaching classes that hundreds of people in India cannot afford, get admission into a highly funded institution, and claim to be intellectually superior to them. IT is a brilliant leveler (though maybe not as great as death). IT allows entry for people from all walks of life and from all strata of society.
Naturally, this creates frustration amongst many too. I personally know people who never took their academics seriously, never studied seriously, never did any hard work for years, and having grown up in the government-job-era of the early ’90′s, they had no idea of what was coming. They assumed that because their parents are rich, they could get away with it. 20 years ago, they probably would have been able to get away with it. But not any more. No company will give them a job based on their family name or parent’s inheritance. If you can’t peform, you’re out.
For a person like me, this turns into a blessing. I’ve never really gotten along with the coaching-class-based educational system. I’ve never found people really interested in math or science or anything for that matter. So I’ve never managed to get good grades, having blatantly refused to write boring pointless historic crap. I was more interested “why” Mahatma Gandhi did something, or what his reasons were, or “why” Bhagat Singh did what he did. I was least interested in “when” they did it. Makes no difference to me. Let us call this a more scientific approach to history.
I was threatened for five years that I would never get a job in my life, especially in the IT industry. But I held on, and now I’ve got one that I’m happy with. If you’ve read the panchatantra, you’ll find a story about how four brothers who were out to seek their fortune, were given four lamp-wicks by a wise man and asked to walk down a road and to dig whenever a wick fell. For three brothers, they progressively found mines of copper, silver and gold. They were ready to share their riches with an equal share (as per their original agreement). But the fourth brother wanted more and he went on and got eternal torture. I’m not really interested looking for anything where I would become the fourth brother. In fact, to be safe, I prefer being the first one.
Now you can see why the IT industry is a blessing. Even with all these threats by some past students from various colleges (including some from my own), I could get a job. And all thanks to this new industry and the new conventions. This would not have been possible 20 years ago. I could not have been able to make inroads in a tightly controlled system of lobbyists in each industry.
This craze for the industry is hurting the country more then ever before. The phrase “industry expert”, in my opinion, is the beginnins of such a cult. And it must be stopped right now! This is what I learnt from history. ISSC blamed me for having bad grades in history in 10th. Well, my response to them is that I learnt more from history than many high-scorers ever will! I’ve seen these same signs previously. The very minute we begin to think as “us” vs. “them”, we’ve become a Sith lord. We really have to value expertise objectively. Tomorrow, I might find myself with an incessant love for teaching, and this cult will immediately throw me out as one without any expertise because I may not be working in the industry anymore. That would be the day I will have completely lost faith in India. We who always blamed the USA for treating us as others and not giving Indians the same treatment as Americans, if we allow such a system to develop, then I would hope that God exists, and I would hope that all that stuff about a Judgement Day is real and I hope to see that Judgement be passed upon hypocrites.
